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Rend Developer Letter: Launch!Mar 29, 2019 - Community Announcementshttps://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/28056153/d0f2739346b4a807ea814a5a579e1eac627e284b.jpg Warriors, the glorious day is upon us: Rend is leaving Early Access! We launched Rend into the Steam Early Access program on July 31, 2018 as a fully developed survival game that offered room for growth and our goal from the start was to continuously grow and improve the game by working directly with players to gather feedback every step of the way. https://store.steampowered.com/app/547860/Rend/ Rend has seen significant updates and improvements during the eight months of its Early Access – all addressing top player requests, interests and concerns – including 50+ game patches and nine major content updates that introduced new game modes, artifact weapons, biomes, creatures, player abilities, siege weapons, and more. And today with the release of its final content update, we are proud to announce that Rend has officially launched! REND’S LAUNCH CONTENT UPDATE With Patch 9 incorporated into the game, the final release of Rend is ready to go live! Available now on the official Rend servers, this major content update introduces more than 250 gameplay improvements and bug fixes as well as redesigned Control Points and the key feature of the patch: an all-new interactive world map. Eagerly requested by players since Rend’s earliest test phases, the map is an important quality-of-life improvement for new and existing players in that it allows a faction’s fresh recruits to get up to speed on their team’s geography much faster. The map also replaces the popup menu when selecting a respawn or teleport destination. Check out the latest changes on the official servers! Want more on Rend’s latest update? Check out the full patch notes and world map feature! THE ROAD TO LAUNCH Rend began with the goal of improving the survival genre to reach a broader audience, incorporating community feedback along the way to help guide its development. We’ve sought to deliver a survival game experience that both players and our own team would want to play: moving the genre forward by solving its associated pain points. Attempting to disrupt a genre is no small task and Rend has fundamentally benefited from having players involved from its very beginning. The team consulted with key influencers, guild leaders, and content creators; staff from all departments engaged with players on our forums, Discord, and Reddit daily. Focus on player insight has been our North Star since the start and we set out to continuously grow and improve Rend by working with you, the players, to gather and incorporate constructive feedback every step of the way through the development process. Revisit our completed development roadmaps from Alpha and Early Access! Following a gauntlet of community Pre-Alpha and Alpha test events, our aim was to use the Early Access program the way Valve intended, establishing from the very beginning that we would remove the Early Access tag and l...Rend Early Access Patch 9Mar 29, 2019 - Community Announcementshttps://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/28056153/1016826c67279afd183e91b9af78db2d96f9d463.jpg Patch 9 introduces an interactive world map, a major update to Control Points, and dozens of important bug fixes to issues reported by you, our dedicated player community. This patch will deploy at 2:00 PM PDT (GMT-7) on Friday, March 29. Interactive World Map The initial design for Rend was to place iconic landmarks and clear pathways for a faction to use as common points of reference in relation to the central Yggdrasil tree which often defaulted as a generic “north” for each of the three map triads. Although this tribal knowledge approach was functional, it ended up not being practical as it put the onus squarely on player communication. This also made it difficult for new players to get up to speed within a reasonable window of time. To improve overall player quality-of-life, we determined that adding a more traditional navigational tool in the form of an interactive map was necessary. Can be pulled up via the Map tab along the top of the in-game menu (it can also have a hotkey assigned to it for quick access). Can be zoomed in/out and click-dragged to focus on a specific region. Markers on revealed map sections indicate a variety of landmarks such as your current position, Faction Strongholds, Control Points, and more. Custom markers can be placed and shared with group members. Respawn and teleport options now are house in the world map instead of the placeholder popup menu. Redesigned Control Points Adjusted the loot table reward distribution for Control Point conquest rewards. These now have a weighted chance to drop higher tier artifact rewards (previously was a baseline table). A faction can no longer interact with a Control Point it owns while its shields are down. Reduced the cast time to capture a Control Point to 10 seconds. Control Point shields are now visually accurate from a distance. Control Points now give a one time burst of rewards when the shields restore. Control Points around the Roots of Yggdrasil now award more XP than Control Points in the Highlands. Control Points around the Roots of Yggdrasil are now level with the terrain. Control Point shields no longer restore automatically after a timer. Instead, they will now raise after a faction has held the point for 4 minutes. Control Points now reset to neutral when the shields drop. Reduced the time between Control Point activations by 30 minutes. Control Points no longer have a structure grid. Added ruins around the Control Points in the Highlands. Reduced the frequency of messaging for Control Points dropping and raising shields (less chat spam). Removed Control Points from Classic and Exploration modes. General Assigned Favor costs to all Artifact tiers. Tier 1: 0 - 2500 Tier 2: 2500 - 4000 Tier 3: 4000 - 6000 Tier 4: 6000 - 10000 Tier 5: 10000 - 20000 Player corpses no longer block combat. Rend now supports AlienFX: stats or events can be assigned lig...New Feature: Interactive World MapMar 9, 2019 - Community Announcementshttps://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/28056153/949f7d9b065ab628b6230add091914f0fed2a33b.jpg This Early Access article highlights an upcoming feature that the Rend community has been asking for since the days of Alpha: an in-game world map. Player feedback has driven the interactive design of this feature, originally only available as a static image on external fansites. Read on for an overview of how the addition of this map is set to change how you play Rend when it arrives in our next major game update! FROM WORD OF MOUTH TO WORLD MAP The initial design for Rend was to place iconic landmarks and clear pathways for a faction to use as common points of reference in relation to the central Yggdrasil tree which often defaulted as a generic “north” for each of the three map triads. Although this tribal knowledge approach was functional, it ended up not being practical as it put the onus squarely on player communication. This also made it difficult for new players to get up to speed within a reasonable window of time. To improve overall player quality-of-life, we determined that adding a more traditional navigational tool in the form of an interactive map was necessary. A relatively common feature in any number of other games, the world map will be immediately familiar to almost everyone. The map is about the same size as the generic in-game menu and can be pulled up via the Map tab along the top of the in-game menu (it can also have a hotkey assigned to it for quick access). When summoned, it can be zoomed in and out and click-dragged to focus on a specific region. The world’s three faction triads have been divided into 71 sections making for 213 total map areas. Each section needs to be individually explored to reveal it on the map (meaning that navigating to the Conclave Highlands won’t expose the Order and Revenant Highlands). Markers on revealed sections of the map indicate a variety of landmarks such as your current position, the position of your corpse(s), and any members of your current group as well as Faction Strongholds and Control Points. If the section has been explored, Control Point markers will also show ownership and timers that tick down to when they’re up for grabs again. Custom markers can also be placed by players and shared between group members, useful for indicating points of interest such as obelisks, resource nodes, or threats. The world map is also the new home of the respawn and teleport options instead of the placeholder popup menu. TRY OUT THE WORLD MAP EARLY ON PTR As this feature has been one of the most common requests from the community, we want our players to have the opportunity to test it out before it hits the live servers. Join us on the Public Test Realm (PTR) server where an advance version of our next game update is currently live and available to play right now! This patch also contains dozens of important bug fixes and gameplay improvements: read all about them with our prelimin...Patch 9 Available Now on PTRMar 7, 2019 - Community Announcementshttps://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/28056153/775a5cc3be421e1fa756e3f117860b29929c1e33.jpg Patch 9 introduces more than 250 gameplay improvements and bug fixes as well as redesigned Control Points and an all-new interactable world map. A overview of these new features and more can be found in the preliminary patch notes. With internal testing complete, we’re inviting players to participate in an early public test of Patch 9 on the Public Test Realm (PTR) server before it goes live. Here’s how to participate in the test: 1. Open Steam and click Library at the top. 2. Right-click on Rend in your Steam Library and click Properties. 3. Click the Betas tab, select “publictest” from the pulldown menu and click Close. 4. Steam should detect the Rend PTR patch and begin downloading it. Restart Steam if it does not. 5. Run the game (should show as “Rend ” in your Steam Library). Click the Find Server button, then the Filters button. Select Custom from the Game Modes and click Apply, then join the "Public Test" server that appears. 6. Please note that the PTR server is in Faction War mode and will be updated incrementally. Scheduled downtimes will be announced in the Server Status forum. We’ll release the final patch notes for Patch 9 when this version of the game hits the live servers. We’re eager for your feedback on the many changes that Patch 9 brings so be sure to share your thoughts with us on the forums, Discord, Reddit, and Steam! https://www.rendgame.com/news/article/patch-9-available-now-ptrRend Early Access Patch 8: Patch NotesJan 28, 2019 - Community Announcementshttps://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/28056153/327a171f5ff69b1275879c10d97c8ead9335bc1f.jpg Patch 8 introduces a major update to Bow combat, rebalanced and amended Ammunition and other crafting recipes, and dozens of important bug fixes to issues reported by you, our dedicated Early Access community. This patch will deploy at 8:00 AM PST (GMT-8) on Tuesday, January 29. Bow Combat Rework We’ve made a comprehensive update to how Bow combat works. As of this patch, you draw your Bow by clicking and holding the left mouse button and fire the arrow by releasing the button. This means you can take as much or as little time as you want to fire your arrow. Additionally, the damage, velocity, range, and accuracy are all scaled by how far you have drawn your Bow before firing. Zoom (ADS) is still controlled by right clicking but is no longer required to draw or fire a Bow. Bows have also been converted from hitscan to projectile weapons and have had their attack speed (draw speed), accuracy, range, projectile speed, and gravity adjusted to match. The damage values remain the same but relative damage-per-second has slightly increased to compensate for the weapon no longer being hitscan. We’ve added several feedback indicators to give you a good sense of Bow draw progress and when your Bow is fully drawn: the main visual change is a new Bow draw indicator as part of your crosshair while drawing a Bow. In addition, you’ll notice an arrow nock sound, a small visual effect near the head of the arrow, and a very minor camera shake have been introduced, all of which indicate when your Bow is fully drawn and ready to fire at full power. Now that projectile Bows have been introduced to Rend’s combat, we’ve made a bunch of projectile-related improvements: Projectile weapons can now deal critical damage. Projectile weapons are now affected by distance-based damage falloff. Projectile weapons logic has been reworked to more reliably send the projectile to where the player is aiming. We hope you enjoy our new Bow combat and are eagerly awaiting your feedback! General Players stuck behind enemy faction shields will gain a debuff causing them to rapidly perish. This debuff does not apply during Reckoning events. Increased the volume of the sound effect and the noise generated when you land from jumping. Player scaling now affects harvest distance. Cleaned up the position adjustment due to character scaling. Items Arbalests can no longer use siege Ammunition. Removed Shademoss from the game. Removed Ichorpod from the game. Taming Crystals should no longer affect players. In addition, Taming Crystals should no longer be consumed when attempting to apply them to an invalid target. Increased Chitin stacks to 200. Arrow Breaker Shoulders now grant the correct increase to Maximum Health (24 up from 0.24). Hearthfur Pants now grant the correct amount of Armor (284 up from 130). Changed Armory Upgrade Costs After initial construction, the Armory requ...Rend Roadmap: Optimizing the World MapJan 14, 2019 - Community Announcementshttps://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/28056153/33f3879835c3764178c98654a6f5c0508df49ebf.jpg This Early Access roadmap article explores the newly optimized realm of Rend with specifics about the macro and micro adjustments to the map. Our earliest players will recall that this is not Rend’s first map change, however, it is the most significant in terms of scope. Read on for insights from the developers into how the game’s map has changed as of Patch 7 and why! REMAPPING REND One of the final steps of Rend’s Winter roadmap was to optimize the game world’s familiar triangle-shaped layout with the goal of creating more interesting terrains from a gameplay perspective; this means introducing terrains full of bottlenecks, choke points, and narrow corridors. While the map is still roughly the same shape and size, there is now less overall landmass available to players. Each biome has been pared down and now features more defined pathways between faction territories, a change intended to increase the map’s player collision (developer terminology for members of opposing factions encountering each other), generating friction between factions and leading to PvP combat. https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/28056153/dce6452f9197e9e854d3211b5a5554843f9f7935.jpg https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/28056153/b72f9a25e764dd49167eb8b0447b65ed57881767.jpg Click the thumbnails for larger versions of these before and after maps. When players enter Rend, they are now guided towards other teammates and opponents. Player feedback also indicated that the game needed better points of reference given that Rend doesn’t offer a minimap, instead requiring factions to convey location using shared landmarks. Towards that end, we created terrain-based points of interest to help with navigation and make the placement of creatures and resource nodes feel more natural. As such, biomes are now no longer nebulous and undefined and instead are immediately identifiable: the new gaping chasms are far more visually distinctive than the previous open fields and play into the thematic flavor of Rend being a shattered fragment of Midgard, floating in the ether. Combined with reshaped and well-defined map edges, these changes further cut down on total map real estate which is a positive side effect. Learn how Rend’s combat has changed with the map in our Combat Reloaded roadmap article! RENOVATION, NOT REDECORATION When you begin to explore the new Rend map, you’ll notice changes as soon as you spawn in for the first time. The starting area geography of Hearthholm now leads players in the direction of Yggdrasil and the faction stronghold instead of in the opposite direction towards the map edge. Myrkfen, Dreadveil, Scarsyre, and the Highlands have also been reduced in size with new cavities in the land creating more defined roads and narrower traversal spaces. These visually interesting pathways double a...Rend Developer Letter: Winter 2018Dec 27, 2018 - Community Announcementshttps://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/28056153/8e8843328f900aec0b6c4c5b526e97efc850ea0f.jpg This has been a year of milestones for Frostkeep Studios. We doubled in number of team members, progressed through our Alpha testing and content roadmap, were featured at a half-dozen major game industry events, reached the front page of Twitch with our partner program, and self-published Rend as an Early Access title on Steam just to name a few highlights. With 2018 coming to a close, let’s review some of the recent studio and game developments since our Fall Developer Letter. Crafted from Humble Beginnings What started with a trio of ambitious industry veterans has become the passion project of twenty full-time Frostkeepers. The Rend team continues to grow with new engineers, programmers, designers, and producers joining our ranks in recent months. Through their added talent, we shifted our game update cadence towards more content-rich releases that drove this season’s Early Access roadmap. And we’re just getting started: keep an eye on the Frostkeep careers page where we have over a dozen new positions in our Art, Design, Engineering, Marketing, and Production departments and will be adding more through the end of December. Got Rend on your wishlist? Get it for 66% off during the Steam Winter Sale! https://store.steampowered.com/app/547860 Winter Early Access Roadmap Completed Over the course of the months since it was announced, the Winter Early Access roadmap has provided an overview of the gameplay content and quality-of-life improvements planned for Rend. Completed as of Patch 7, it now serves as a recap of how far along the Early Access game has come since late September. New Game Modes Allows for open-ended gameplay with significant changes to core Rend systems including the game's pre-established factions and shielded strongholds. Combat Improvements Tightens up the gunplay and enhances the aesthetics of combat, making both feel more impactful and bringing them in line with modern shooters. Crafting Reconstructed Simplifies game aspects such as harvesting and refining as well as crafting tables and recipes with the intent of making Rend more accessible to a broader audience. Streamlined Storage Overhauls how the game handles storage and team resources with the return of the redesigned Warehouse and repurposed Armory in the faction stronghold. Legendary Artifacts Introduces epic items from Norse mythology including unique weapons and armor that can shift the balance of power within a saga. Dynamic Siege Combat Makes raiding faction strongholds a more engaging experience by adding new siege weapons and tools such as catapults and personnel flingers. Refined Social Mechanics Shifts decision-making power to the faction through permission requests and voting, introduces player grouping for cooperative PvE and PvP parties, and much more. We’ve added another roadmap entry for a recently introduced feature: map layout optimiz...Save Big on Rend in the Steam Winter SaleDec 20, 2018 - Community Announcementshttps://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/28056153/325baf6c16f249325a4c58007ea8de709198f4ec.jpg Winter has officially begun with today's launch of the annual Steam Winter Sale - and Rend is participating! Save big on Rend during the Steam Winter Sale: 66% off the normal Early Access price! We've also just introduced artifact weapons and armors as well as combat, crafting, and storage improvements making now the perfect time to gift Rend to the survival gamers in your life (or to finally buy it from your Steam wishlist). https://store.steampowered.com/app/547860 New to Rend? Be sure to catch up on the latest game developments with our Early Access roadmap, community issues board, and full notes for Patch 7 and Patch 7.1. Hurry, this sale ends on January 3 at 10:00 AM PST (UTC-8)!Rend Roadmap: Introducing ArtifactsDec 19, 2018 - Community Announcementshttps://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/28056153/e64d3ac9f0c2e84ec447682ea2191468ca1e35a4.jpg Our fifth Early Access roadmap article delves into artifacts, one of Rend’s most unique features. Inspired by the mythical treasures of the gods from ancient Norse myths, these mighty items can shift the balance of power in a saga. Read on for an introduction to how artifacts change the core Rend experience, examples of artifacts weapons and equipment, and most importantly how to claim them for yourself in-game! WIELD THE TREASURES OF THE GODS Survival is the essence of Rend where every fallen tree branch or shard of flint can mean the difference between suffering through a bitterly cold night or the rudimentary shelter of a campfire. In this unforgiving world where weapons and armors are crafted from what a player can find, encountering a magical gift sent from Valhalla is a literal game-changer. Our goal with artifacts is to introduce new and exciting rewards for players to covet and seek out. With certain artifact abilities rivaling some of the skills and spells of the game’s archetypes, these powerful items are designed to change up the way that the Rend community thinks about playing the game. Many artifacts are also directly inspired by the epic poems of Norse, the very mythology that the fantasy world of Rend was built upon. Learn about Rend’s new Warehouse and Armory in our Streamlined Storage roadmap article! HOW TO ACQUIRE ARTIFACTS There are three ways to get your hands on artifacts in Rend. Boon of the Gods: These celestial chests are earned just by playing the game normally through PvE and PvP activities such as combat, gathering, crafting, research, and so on. They appear in the world marked with the target player’s name and can only be opened by that player. World Exploration: Artifacts can be found in the world of Rend by exploring its biomes and Spirit Realm. Glowing treasure caches, accessible by everyone, will often contain them. However, be ready to confront other treasure seekers! Brute Force: Beyond their enhanced power, artifacts function much like any other piece of equipment in that they are not soulbound and do drop on death. Brandishing an artifact will imbue a player with the strength of the gods but will also make them a tempting target for their foes. KNOW YOUR ARTIFACTS Artifacts come in all shapes and sizes, ranging the gamut from armors, weapons, tools, and more. There are even special consumable artifacts that grant Ascension Points. We’ve also added a new item type called relics which can be equipped to passively apply special buffs. We're going to continue adding a variety of new artifacts in future game updates. Catch up on all of the game changes introduced with Patch 7! There are two rarity categories that these items fall into: artifacts and mythic artifacts. Artifacts have orange icon borders and provide bonuses that exceed the norm for items of their level (or often of any level!). Mean...Rend Early Access Patch 7.1: Patch NotesDec 18, 2018 - Community Announcementshttps://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/28056153/ceeba80674421f105531fd3cf4e18105cedf1477.jpg This interim patch fixes a number of minor yet important issues reported by the Rend community in Discord and on the official and Steam forums. It also changes how the Warehouse reflects its material capacity and Favor payout behavior. Thanks to our diligent players for their constructive feedback and bug reporting! General The Warehouse now displays the item count in white while you can gain Favor for depositing that item. The count changes to yellow when this value is exceeded and further deposits won’t be rewarded Favor (this Favor or soft cap is approximately 66% of maximum capacity). In addition, the Favor value for an item in the Warehouse is hidden when depositing it will not give you any Favor (due to that item being past its Favor cap). Balance Looting a spawned Boon of the Gods chest should no longer cost Favor. Reduced the number of loot payouts from Gnarlwood Trees. Reduced the drop quantities of Caustic Resin from Thornwood Trees. Slightly reduced the number of loot payouts from large Thornwood Trees. Slightly reduced the weight of Runeoak, Geistwood, and Ironfir Logs. Slightly reduced the weight of Tin, Copper, Flux, and Iron Ores. Divine Reinforcements now correctly cost 20 sparks per research. Artifacts Hel-Touched Longbow, Hel's Last Gasp, and Trickster's Gambit have been temporarily removed from the loot tables. Crafting and Research Ironfir Bows, Spirit Hammers, and many other recipes can again be crafted. Removed unnecessary durability value from bombs. Bombs crafted before Patch 7 should work once again. Removed Dross Metal Bar from all remaining recipes that still had it as an ingredient. Switched default demolish permission state from YES to NO. This results in requiring the use of the demolish vote system in order to destroy faction base pieces regardless of rank. World Boon of the Gods should no longer spawn when you're in the faction stronghold. Creatures and Pets Glutts Glutt AI no longer has a dead zone where you can stand causing it to do nothing. Changed the melee attack for Glutts to a belly flop. Glutt now has a backwards dodge if you get too close. Rare spawn Glutts now have a body slam attack. Minor tweaks to the speed and spacing of projectiles from the Glutt's spew. Festerwigs now have a basic ranged attack. Interface Added slash command to kick a player from group: /kick PLAYERNAME or /groupkick PLAYERNAME. You can still use the social tab context menu to kick players from your group. This only works for the leader of the group. The demolish vote header no longer reads "Outcast Vote". Disabled notifications of attempts to use excess Favor. Bug Fixes Fixed a crash related to clan promote. Fixed the demolish vote data so that it is properly saved and loaded. Fixed an issue that was preventing Twilight Reaper (Shaman) from applying at night. Fixed an issue with the Warmarch artifact causing Sta...Rend Early Access Patch 7: Patch NotesDec 13, 2018 - Community Announcementshttps://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/28056153/eb3d3212539fedb1785f9c3807618a87c423ae17.jpg Patch 7 introduces a number of gameplay and quality-of-life features that we’ve been working on in parallel with the Patch 6 series including the new faction storage system, a new map layout, and our first pass on artifacts and relics. We’ll have full feature articles published for these features but a brief overview can be found in the patch notes here. We'd also like to extend our thanks to the diligent and dedicated testers on the PTR server this week! General Warehouse and Armory Each faction stronghold now has a Warehouse which stores raw resources that all faction members can access by spending Favor (previously Warehouse Credit). The Armory functions in a similar way, only with armor and weapons instead of resources. Favor is a new currency earned by depositing resources into the Warehouse or Armory. Mousing over Favor in your inventory displays more details. Read more about Rend's Streamlined Storage in our latest Early Access roadmap feature! Artifacts We’ve added a small number of initial artifacts to the game. These are powerful weapons, armor, relics, and accessories that only appear in Boon from the Gods chests that drop from the sky. Ammunition Banishing Arrow The Black Arrow Armors Bjarne's Paws Boots of the Fallen God Braces of the Half Jotun Dain's Odd Boots Durnir's Stubborn Epaulets Eir's Mantle of Patience Fallen Archers Gauntlets Fists of Fury Freya's Flamboyant Jodhpurs Freyr's Mitts of the Harvest Heimdall's Horn Helm of the Ancient Vanir Helm of the Unseen Hungering Vestments Jotun's Grip Lofar's Rusty Stompers Mimir's Head Odin's Vest of Strength Sindri's Burden Sindri's Favor Sindri's Forgeworks Jodhpurs Sindri's Guidance Sindri's Riding Boots Trickster's Guard Ullr's Grit Ullr's Pacesetters Ull's Keen Eye Relics Bragi's Words Gungnir's Spike Nidhogg's Fang Scroll of Forgotten Knowledge Sindri's Hasty Heirloom Trickster's Gambit Tyr's Hand Warmarch Tools Brokkr's Forge Hammer Njord's Vessel Weapons Crystalline Edge Hel-Touched Longbow Mjolnir Phoenix Longbow Rimestriker Equipped artifacts drop on player death like all items other than Spirit Tools. Artifacts are not soulbound on use. Added new melee attack animations for Crystalline Edge and Mjolnir weapons. Improved the trail, explosion, and persistent VFX for Mjolnir. New Map A new map with narrower corridors and tighter biome spaces has been implemented. This map is designed to increase player collision chances by funneling players into smaller areas. Each Faction War server will transition to the new map on completion of its current saga. New Classic and Exploration servers will use the new map when opened. Current Classic and Exploration servers will continue to use the previous map. Storage containers are no longer able to be placed in the faction stronghold. Containers in the faction stronghold provided a false sense of safety of storage. This a...Rend Roadmap: Streamlined StorageDec 11, 2018 - Community Announcementshttps://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/28056153/630ee7878954b7750e8b220e30c56cadb33b7bf6.jpg Our fourth Early Access roadmap article dives into how we’re taking player insights to heart when it comes to designing a faction stronghold storage system that is both easy to use for new recruits while at the same time protects the team’s assets from internal sabotage. Read on for an overview of the changes we’ve made based on community feedback plus what’s ahead. SIMPLIFYING STORAGE From our own adventures in Rend, we know that making sure contributing teammates have access to a faction’s resources and crafted equipment can be equally as important as being able to securely store them. Some of the most common feedback we received from Early Access players has been the frustration over losing valuable stockpiles to less upstanding faction members or malicious saboteurs from opposing factions. Towards this end, we’re introducing sweeping changes to how storage is handled in Faction War mode with the intent of separating armors, weapons, and raw materials into categorized, visually distinctive buildings that strike a balance between accessibility and anti-griefing. CONTAINING CONTAINERS To start, craftable storage containers can no longer be placed in the faction stronghold on Faction War servers. As many of them look identical, finding where a specific item was stored required either fastidious labeling habits or opening every box to relocate it. This ate a lot of gameplay time and introduced tedium into what should be a simple activity. We also found that newer players would often be confused about the lack of security the containers provided and used them to store valuables that would be easily plundered during a raid. These containers can still be placed in clan and personal bases. Learn about Rend’s crafting system changes in our Crafting Reconstructed roadmap article! Each player’s personal stash will still be housed in the faction stronghold and is inaccessible to other players. We’ll be increasing the number of stash slots to compensate for the loss of storage containers. Reputation-locked containers will be turning into clan storage chests so clans can better limit which groups can access them. INTRODUCING FACTION FAVOR Faction strongholds now features new Warehouse and Armory buildings which store raw resources and finished equipment that all faction members can access in a way that prevents deliberate same-team looting. These structures are pre-placed and can be upgraded for increased utility much like other stronghold buildings. However, unlike other buildings, these utilize a special currency called Favor which is earned through faction donations and redeemed for goods and items donated by other faction members. Previously called Faction Use Score or Warehouse Credit on the PTR, Favor is earned by depositing resources or equipment you aren’t going to use into the Warehouse or Armory, respectively, making them availa...Artifacts (Patch 7) Available Now on PTRDec 10, 2018 - Community Announcementshttps://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/28056153/45691e00e566f0635942beaee7ed6d7f7fb6d956.jpg Patch 7 introduces a number of gameplay and quality-of-life features that we’ve been working on in parallel with the Patch 6 series including the Warehouse system, a dodging mechanic for players, a new map layout, and our first pass on artifacts and relics. We’ll have full feature articles published for these features but a brief overview can be found in the preliminary patch notes. With internal testing complete, we’re inviting players to participate in an early public test of Patch 7 on the Public Test Realm (PTR) server before it goes live. Here’s how to participate in the test: 1. Open Steam and click Library at the top. 2. Right-click on Rend in your Steam Library and click Properties. 3. Click the Betas tab, select “publictest” from the pulldown menu and click Close. 4. Steam should detect the Rend PTR patch and begin downloading it. Restart Steam if it does not. 5. Run the game (should show as “Rend ” in your Steam Library). Click the Find Server button, then the Filters button. Select Custom from the Game Modes and click Apply, then join the "Public Test" server that appears. 6. Please note that the PTR server is in Faction War mode and will be updated incrementally. Scheduled downtimes will be announced in the Server Status forum. We’ll release the full patch notes for Patch 7 when this version of the game hits the live servers. We’re eager for your feedback on the many changes that Patch 7 brings so be sure to share your thoughts with us on the forums, Discord, Reddit, and Steam! https://www.rendgame.com/news/article/artifacts-available-now-ptrRend Roadmap: Crafting ReconstructedDec 4, 2018 - Community Announcementshttps://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/28056153/7ad510153914102e8af5d305e4217e5f722dad11.jpg Crafting is necessary for survival in the brutal and unforgiving lands of Rend but that doesn’t mean it can't be fun too. Over the few short months since Early Access began, we’ve been listening to the community’s valuable feedback on this core game system to make crafting easier to use, faster to master, and altogether a more enjoyable experience. Here’s an overview of the changes we’ve made to Rend’s crafting gameplay as well as improvements to expect in the near future. Rebuilding a Better Crafting Experience For a comprehensive overhaul of Rend’s crafting system, we started by redesigning how the core materials encountered in the game are sourced and consumed with the intent of reducing complexity and tedium. Nearly every recipe in the game has been updated to require basic materials as opposed to rarer drops. Every creature in the game now reliably drops one of four resources instead of tiered material types on right-click harvesting: leather, tough skin, chitin, and fur. Many of the creature-specific harvests on left-click have also been removed for the sake of simplification. Learn more about the four creature families in our Survival Game Modes roadmap article! We’ve also taken a level of unnecessary time gating out of the crafting system by removing the majority of refined materials. The recipes for these items use raw materials to create advanced, often expensive-to-make components that are only used as ingredients themselves. Examples of removed refined materials include plant essences, lumber, bricks, twine, rope, cloth textiles, and advanced leathers. Recipes that call for the remaining refined materials such as metal bars, adhesive pastes, and explosive compounds will now require 1-2 of each instead of 4-6, making them significantly easier to craft. The rationale for these changes is to simplify the overall crafting system and shift the deeper gameplay towards late-game while fresh recruits enjoy a more streamlined experience in their first hours of Rend. Much More than Reorganized Recipes The way recipes are organized has also been wholly reimagined. Crafting trees associated with specific buildings have been split up to provide a better at-a-glance indication of what each is used for: the Construction Building now has a Construction Table for defending bases and a Siege Table for attacking them while crafting at the Mystic Altar is split between a Mysticism Table for spirit tools and refined materials and an Alchemy Table for potions. In the case of the Adventuring Table, its recipes have been divided amongst three new tables: the Weapon Table for weapons and ammunition, the Armor Table for all armor types, and the Gear Table for everything else such as torches, waterbags, and traps. Additionally, the number of crafting tiers per weapon type has been reduced so each tier presents a more significant jump in damag...Rend Early Access Patch 6.3: Patch NotesNov 30, 2018 - Community Announcementshttps://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/28056153/843a44f6656356c8996ebd46da28343c2cb44ba4.jpg This interim patch introduces significant bomb damage rebalancing as well as fixing a number of missing or outdated recipes to resolve progression blockers. Also, the much-missed Stonefire Oven has made its return. Balance Reduced Wood Siege Bomb damage from 250 to 150. Reduced Bronze Siege Bomb damage from 750 to 300. Reduced Iron Siege Bomb damage from 2500 to 500. Reduced Divinite Siege Bomb damage from 5000 to 1250. Reduced the crafting time of Adhesives. Dramatically increased Feather drop rates given how common they are required in new recipes. Increased output of Amber Paste recipe to where it was before the latest patch. Crafting Hardwood building pieces (such as walls) no longer require Dross Metal. Personal Mysticism Table and Faction Mysticism Table now have the Mortar tab, allowing creation of Adhesives, Explosive Powders, Cements, and more. Flash Powder and Black Powder are now craftable. Bug Fixes Fixed missing Stonefire Oven recipe. Note, this crafting table can currently only be crafted at Construction Tables in personal or clan bases but it can still be placed in faction strongholds. We'll be adding the missing recipe back to the faction stronghold Construction Table in our next patch. Fixed some recipes that were still using Bricks, Lumber, Twine, or other removed/not-yet-in materials. Fixed Stringy Shoulder Roast and Lesser Totem of Spirit Calming recipes that were still requiring the removed Essence of Bjornheather. Fixed Heavy Armor recipes to correctly follow the crafting progression path. https://community.rendgame.com/discussion/2775/rend-early-access-patch-6-3-patch-notes/p1Save Big on Rend in the Steam Autumn SaleNov 21, 2018 - Community Announcementshttps://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/28056153/287a904ed837403aac725bed783abd4500660302.jpg Fall doesn't only refer to leaves: it also means falling game prices. The harvest season has officially begun with today's launch of the annual Steam Autumn Sale - and Rend is participating. https://store.steampowered.com/app/547860 Save big on Rend during the Steam Autumn Sale: 66% off the normal Early Access price! We've also launched two new game modes making now the perfect time to gift Rend to the survival gamers in your life (or to finally buy it from your Steam wishlist). New to Rend? Be sure to catch up on the latest game developments with our Early Access roadmap, community issues board, and full notes for Patch 6 and Patch 6.1. Hurry, this sale ends on November 27 at 10:00 AM PST (UTC-8)! Read more at https://www.rendgame.com/news/article/steam-autumn-sale-now-live Rend Early Access Patch 6.1: Patch NotesNov 20, 2018 - Community Announcementshttps://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/28056153/afdc6fe0f542636f9c6137cad5a3ea33d83cba4c.jpg The team’s taking a Spirit Axe to one of Rend’s core systems to create a streamlined crafting experience. This patch expands upon the initial Early Access roadmap changes introduced in Patch 6 last week with the majority of the game’s crafting tables restructured for easier navigation when searching for a specific recipe. Clearer categories are just the beginning: many early-game recipes have had rare or hard-to-find materials removed to expedite game entry and recovery from inventory loss. We’d like to thank the intrepid players braving the new Classic mode this past week and for sharing their feedback with us, much of it incorporated into this patch! As a reminder, read our Rend roadmap feature to learn how the new Classic (PvP) and Exploration (PvE) game modes differ from Faction War mode. Balance Spark rewards from harvesting creatures are now scaled based on the tier of the harvesting tool used. You can harvest creatures one tier above your tool and receive full spark payouts. (For example, Tier 3 tools are required to get full spark payouts from Tier 4 creatures.) Reduced frequency of spark payouts from harvesting creatures. Reduced the spark payouts from Tier 4 creatures. Adjusted loot payouts from creatures of all levels, generally making them more consistent by tier and level. Reduced damage mitigation gained from armor. More armor rating is now required to achieve the previously high damage mitigation values. This change should allow higher tier armors to feel like more meaningful defensive upgrades. Reduced creature damage (especially early game) to compensate for lower damage mitigation values. Generally reduced the crafting crit chance on armor and weapons. Removed the crafting failure chance from most armor and weapons. Standardized leak rates of all Waterskins to 0.05/sec, a significant reduction for early-game Waterskins. Crafting Many recipes have found new homes in different crafting tables and Crafting pane tabs. Moved Traps to the Base Defense crafting tree in the Construction tab. Moved Ammunition to the Weapons tab. Moved Spirit Stables building recipe to Crafting Tables crafting tree in the Personal Base tab. Added new Campfire crafting tree to Provisions tab. Renamed Personal Construction Table to Builder's Table to reduce confusion. Removed bulk research conversion recipes and greatly reduced crafting time on individual research conversion recipes. Removed Transmutation from the game. Removed the Alchemist Table from the game. Removed Fiber Twine recipe from the Basic Survival crafting tree. Updated where the Explosive Shells recipe appears in the Ammunition crafting tree. Rough Arrow recipe now requires 5 Roughwood Sticks and crafts 5 Rough Arrows at a time (and crits for 10 Rough Arrows!). Reduced the Crafting Skill XP gained from crafting ammunition. Containers and storage placeables will no longer f...Rend Roadmap: Combat ReloadedNov 19, 2018 - Community Announcementshttps://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/28056153/309c7675fded1c90a6bfda6315ac32503830e967.jpg Even in its earliest designs, Rend’s development has been guided by two principle mechanics: survival gameplay and third-person-shooter gunplay. Over the course of Early Access, we’ve been harvesting player feedback and found that while Rend’s survival elements are strong (if a little daunting which we’ve begun to address as of Patch 6), its gunplay needs to feel more impactful and visceral. We’ve taken the community’s insights to heart, evaluating where combat can be improved upon further and how best to make Rend’s weapons “feel good” with the goal of designing the game’s combat to be competitive with other mainstream multiplayer shooters. AIMING HIGHER WITH REND'S GUNPLAY Combat improvements will always be a top priority for our team. Feedback from our Early Access players indicated that their key pain points centered on weapon imbalance with clearly superior and inferior options and a general lack of visual and audible information with regards to the gunplay. While we planned for the game to do a better job of conveying what was happening in a fight, it was community feedback that helped us prioritize those improvements to be deployed sooner. Involving our players in the development process is using Early Access the way it was intended: listening to and incorporating constructive criticism from the community, focusing on making the gameplay more enjoyable, and producing a more polished game as a result. We began making immediate, iterative improvements to Rend’s combat with the first elements implemented in September as early as Patch 4. These initial updates centered around rebalancing all of Rend’s damage sources with a focus on scaling outliers back in line with the greater weapon curve. This led to more than a few “greatly increased/decreased ” patch notes -- some of which were unpopular at the time -- but as a result, this data revealed necessary changes. This was followed by a series of improvements to how Rend communicates combat to the player: shaking the camera when shooting or shot, adding more sounds for footsteps, reloading, and empty clip clicks, and implementing visual interface indicators and audio cues for hits and crits. For instance, now a player clearly knows when an arrow is nocked in their bow and ready to fire from sound alone. ... Read more at https://www.rendgame.com/news/article/rend-roadmap-combat-reloadedRend Early Access Patch 6: Patch NotesNov 16, 2018 - Community Announcementshttps://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/28056153/949f7d9b065ab628b6230add091914f0fed2a33b.jpg As our Fall 2018 Developer Letter stated, Rend’s extended content schedule means more impactful releases and Patch 6 is no exception. The first of our major Early Access roadmap game updates, it introduces significant, sweeping changes to Rend’s crafting, research, combat, and siege gameplay in addition to dozens of quality-of-life bug fixes. Patch 6 also brings with it two new game modes, Classic (PvP) and Exploration (PvE): read our roadmap feature about how they differ from Faction War mode. Over the next few weeks, players can anticipate more articles that share developer insights and dive deeper into Rend’s Early Access roadmap topics. We’d like to thank everyone who joined the Rend PTR to test out Classic mode and tell us what worked and what needed work: your feedback helped us get Rend’s new game modes ready for release! General New survival game modes Classic (PvP) and Exploration (PvE) added to the game. Added new game mode selection screen for first time players. The server filters have been updated to support the new game modes. Official servers are all now one of the three official game modes: Classic, Exploration, and Faction War. Private servers are now all labeled as Custom game mode. Four new servers will be opened when Patch 6 deploys with more to be added or converted as needed. Classic (NA-East) Exploration (NA-East) Classic (EU) Exploration (EU) Read the Rend Roadmap: Survival Game Modes feature article. When a player exits the game, they will leave behind an Adventurer's Spirit. This spirit can be pillaged, causing their inventory to drop to the ground. Players will not leave behind an Adventurer's Spirit if they log off in a Faction Stronghold or near a personal or clan Divinity Seed. This change does not apply to Exploration mode. Ascension Points and Perks are now global. AP earned on any server adds to a single tally. Perks unlocked using AP apply for all servers. If you've earned AP or unlocked Perks on individual servers, you'll need to log into each of those servers to update your global tally and unlocks. Please contact our Support Team if you're having difficulty. Added Siege Catapult, Personnel Flinger, Trebuchet. Valkyrie Ballista Turret, Giant Shielded Golden Gate, and Bricks of Valhalla wall upgrade to the game. For a long time we've wanted to find ways to make sieging faction strongholds feel more dynamic. We've added in several of our planned Siege Weapons in this build and have a few more siege gameplay changes coming soon, all of which will be further detailed in our Early Access roadmap. Added a new Relic equipment slot for powerful magical items (Relics themselves coming in a future game update). Added a building demolish vote system for Faction War mode. Now any faction member can call a demolish vote with scaling minimum votes and minimum affirmative votes based on active faction membe...Play Rend's New PvP Game Mode EarlyNov 7, 2018 - Community Announcementshttps://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/28056153/81f98d0aa285f54532f8d977cb36ba1dbad015ab.jpg Since Rend’s first public-facing Alpha, the community has been asking for a version of the game that more closely resembles classic survival titles. In tandem with other Early Access roadmap features for Fall-Winter, the team’s been hard at work preparing a factionless game mode for Rend. With internal testing complete, we’re inviting players to participate in an early public test of the game mode on a special Public Test Realm (PTR) server before it goes live. Learn more about the new Classic and Exploration game modes here. Here’s how to participate in the test: 1. Open Steam and click Library at the top. 2. Right-click on Rend in your Steam Library and click Properties. 3. Click the Betas tab, select “publictest” from the pulldown menu and click Close. 4. Steam should detect the Rend PTR patch and begin downloading it. Restart Steam if it does not. 5. Run the game (should show as “Rend ” in your Steam Library). Click the Find Server button, then the Filters button. Select Custom from the Game Modes and click Apply, then join the "Public Test" server that appears. Please note that the PTR server will be updated incrementally. Scheduled downtimes will be announced in the Server Status forum. The PTR is running in Classic mode which is a PvP environment. Immediately at login, players will notice a number of game features have been significantly updated including a streamlined crafting system, redesigned research spark sources, and more. These changes support factionless (Classic and Exploration) gameplay and some will carry over to the standard mode (Faction War) to improve features as outlined in the roadmap. We’ll release the full patch notes detailing these improvements when this version of the game hits the live servers. We’re eager for your feedback on Rend’s new Classic game mode so be sure to share your thoughts with us on the forums, Discord, Reddit, and Steam! https://community.rendgame.com/discussion/2737/test-rends-new-factionless-classic-game-mode

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